It was not your typical dinner table discussion, but with three kids aged 12,14, and 15, dinners were commonly anything but typical. On this particular evening, we had just announced that Ken was transferring to a different park and we would be moving halfway across the state of Missouri. Our lovely daughters were screeching every manner of threat from living with friends to applying for a foster home (they didn’t quite understand the system), anything to avoid leaving their very important friends. Did I mention, we had only moved to this location five months earlier. It stands to reason that if they made “lifelong friends” in their current school, they could do it again in the new school. But they were having none of that. Our son was a bit more reasonable but there was skepticism on his part as well.

Both our girls played volleyball and practice was set to begin at the new school two weeks before our anticipated moving date. To soothe their disappointment at having to go through the agony of relocation, I elected to precede Ken and our son in this move. That meant I had to pack everything in advance and leave the guys with limited resources that would be loaded onto the state’s moving van two weeks later. Then, with countless precious belongings loaded into our relic of a station wagon, the girls and I set out. I think the shocks were bottomed out with our load, so progress was slow, but we arrived and set up housekeeping with our sleeping bags, a microwave, a 13” TV (we had a very weak signal & little time to watch), and enough clothing to get through as long as I could locate a laundromat. Park staff provided a refrigerator that was not in-cabin service at the time and a stove so I could cook a few items with the pots I had brought.

Our oldest would be playing varsity ball, while our youngest was on the JV, necessitating different practice times, one in the morning, the other in the evening. Of course, it was hot in August, so afternoon practice was out of the question. The school was 24 miles, one way. Need I say that I could almost put that old station wagon on autopilot by the time they started classes.

All this happened back in 1987, but that trip and all those practice runs are etched in my mind as clearly as if they happened yesterday. I mention those days because we are often asked to make decisions that impact the people we love in ways that seem negative at the time. Ken and I had been a bit nomadic for a good portion of our lives but kids, especially teens and pre-teens, develop deep bonds which they find amazingly traumatizing to sever. I have little doubt that our decision to accept that relocation has prompted certain patterns in our kids’ lives has been carved out for themselves. They’re all content to stay in one place a lot longer than we were.

But here’s the thing, if we love and support each other and always look to God to get us through these life adventures, He won’t let us down. He’s always there, no matter what our decisions may be and if we make a few less than stellar ones along the way, he’ll set us back on track if we go to Him in prayer and ask.  

With man, it is impossible, but not with God, because all things are possible with God. Mark 10:27

And, by the way, by the time school started both girls had found new best friends and had forgotten all of that dinner table drama from a

 a few weeks earlier. We did promise that we would stay in that school district until each of the kids graduated. Our youngest was starting freshman year so we made a nearly four-year commitment. Our next transfer opportunity presented itself a few months before her graduation. Ken accepted that position on the condition that he could remain in residence in the current park until her graduation and manage both parks simultaneously. His supervisor agreed and he spent nearly four months traveling back and forth between duties at the two parks and overseeing the renovation of our new home. Meanwhile, we managed to keep up with senior class activities including Project Grad, choral competitions, and college orientation. It was well worth the effort and we’d repeat it all if given a do-over (and we were thirty-five years younger).

Whether life-altering or not, decisions come with certain challenges, but we can meet them when we place our faith and trust in the one who can do all things.

I can do all this through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13